the readers Write ‘Connectedness genes’ I read with interest “The strangeness of being…really alone” by Dr. Gregory Hillis (Bellarmine Magazine, Winter 2013). That strangeness of being really alone is a natural reaction to a deprivation—lack of contact with others of the same spe- cies—because man has evolved to be social. Early man could not have survived alone for very long among animals more suited to the wilderness than he. As Thomas Merton wrote: “This (solitude) is not something lightly to be chosen.” Many years ago, my son Matthew and I were camping in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho. Sitting by the campfire, we got to talking about the gifts of fire to early man: warmth, light, cooking, firing pottery and keeping the predators of the night at bay. Then, poking up the fire with a stick, I added, Pick-up games “And a fire gives us something to share when it’s too dark forworking.” We sat silent for a few seconds, then Matthew said, First I would like to thank everyone for the magazine and all “Yeah, that’s why we like the fire so much. People who didn’t the work you all do. Second, in response to your Winter issue like fire wandered away out into the dark and got eaten.” Ear- “Intramurals,” enclosed are two photographs. The large group ly man couldn’t survive forsaking the fire. Likewise, the her- picture was taken in 1967 or 1968. It was composed of the stu- mit’s life was an existence early man couldn’t survive. The dents who lived in Kennedy and Newman Halls at one time. This hermit’s life, with all that contemplation and search for self- was a photo of “pick- up games” between floors or just anybody knowledge, is a “luxury” afforded by a protective society into who wanted to play against each other. Back then, most of us which we can re-enter anytime we get into trouble. Solitude lived too far away to go home on weekends and social activities is not for toothaches and appendectomies. were slim. The photo is not of the “Dormies” team, even though Silence is to me delicious when the TV is turned off. But some had T-shirts. I do not know the photographer. However, we the flavor doesn’t last. Silence, like solitude, is a spice, not the all lived in the dorms at various times. The photo below is of Ron main course of our human existence. While I am a voracious Belton. I believe he was from Brooklyn, New York. He would (paper) book reader, I have been beguiled by our information- practice jumping the crossbars in the photo. He was a great guy, cluttered world, but not as much as my students. Some tell me soft spoken. I wonder what he is doing. (I was the photographer they cannot sleep without the TV on, cannot go a single day of Ron Bolton only.) Thank you, without their cell phones, cannot resist constantly going back to email while they are home working on their computers. Russ Mirabile ’69 Having camped in wilderness for weeks at a time, I used to Rosedale, MD think their attachment to constant communication was un- natural, bordering on addiction. Now I’m not so sure. Perhaps it’s just our “connectedness genes” given full expression by the technology of the digital age. Dr. Fred Stutzenberger ’62 Professor Emeritus, Microbiology & Molecular Medicine, Clemson (S.C.) University Write to us @ Bellarmine Magazine, Bellarmine University 2001 Newburg Road Louisville, Ky 40205 jwelp@bellarmine.edu or 502.272.7492 spring 2013 7
Bellarmine Magazine_Spring2013
To see the actual publication please follow the link above